Crypto scam promoted by hacking X account
The X account belonging to popular actor Tom Holland was recently the target of a hacking incident, during which the attackers used it to falsely promote SPIDER cryptocurrency tokens and Spiderverse NFTs. The account, which has a massive following of over 7 million users, was manipulated by malicious individuals to announce a partnership between the Spider-Man star and the global crypto exchange Binance for the launch of “Spiderverse.” The compromised account also included a link to a fake website, urging users to gain early access to the fraudulent SPIDER cryptocurrency and Spiderverse NFTs. Early screenshots captured during the incident revealed a mysterious selfie of an unidentified man appearing on the actor’s X profile. The deleted post featured an inverted face reveal of the presumed hacker wearing a mask pulled down to his chin. The individual, who had curly hair, potentially being the hacker himself, captioned the post with a reference to the iconic upside-down kiss from the original Tobey Maguire-led Spider-Man film. The post, originally pinned on his profile, has since been removed. Interestingly, this hack occurred around the same time that Sam Raimi’s 2002 directorial, “Spider-Man,” made a return to select movie theaters on April 15. Fans were taken aback by the incident, with some expressing relief that Holland hadn’t actually endorsed cryptocurrency, while others used the opportunity to make light of the peculiar turn of events through memes and humorous tweets. Marvel, on the other hand, has already ventured into the realm of web3, as demonstrated by its collaboration with American movie theater giant AMC to offer thousands of NFTs to those who purchased advance tickets for Holland’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in late 2021. The film went on to gross over $1.9 billion and the inclusion of NFTs contributed to the second-highest one-day ticket sales in AMC’s history. Marvel has also partnered with New Zealand-based NFT company VeVe to offer Spider-Man NFTs, including the very first Marvel book released in 1939. Additionally, VeVe released NFT comics featuring popular Marvel heroes like Spider-Man and the X-Men earlier this year.
